KUALA LUMPUR, July 3 — The Public Service Department’s (PSD) decision to relax the Bahasa Melayu (BM) requirement for the appointment of Grade UD41 contract medical officers will prevent the loss of expertise of hundreds of medical graduates each year.

The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) said the decision would allow 300 to 400 medical graduates including those who studied abroad and sat for O-level examination in international schools to undergo graduate training for two years and the mandatory two years in the Ministry of Health.

Its president, Dr Ravindran R. Naidu said this would allow them to qualify for a medical practitioner’s certificates and register with the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) while maintaining human capital in medicine.

"If the medical graduates cannot undergo graduate and mandatory training, they cannot become a doctor and the country will lose.

"They cannot work in private clinics and pharmacies without a medical practitioner’s certificate. So do they have to become taxi drivers or bus conductors?”

He was commenting on the PSD decision to relax the BM requirement  for contract appointment of Grade UD41 medical officers  who did not sit for BM paper in the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination.

However, the decision drew criticism from proponents of BM who feared that the national language would be sidelined and create a communication problem between medical officers and the patients.

Ravindran said it was not a big issue since the graduates had to pass BM at SPM level for permanent appointment of medical officers in the Ministry of Health.

The perceived communication problem between medical officers and patients did not arise since the medical graduates were Malaysians and thus were able to speak the national language.

Currently, the ratio of doctors in Malaysia is 1: 600 patients, compared to the  target of 1: 400 by 2020. — Bernama